Najib’s ‘C’ word designed to insult Indians, Others,

By Joe Fernandez
The various “initiatives” for the Indian Nation in Malaysia announced by Prime Minister Najib Mohd Razak was, according to him, designed to make the community “competitive”.

He wants Indians to place their continued Nambikkei (Trust in Tamil) in the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) so that it can carry out even more “initiatives” that will benefit the community.

Waking up from slumber in Sabah, Sarawak

By Joe Fernandez

In the Bible, Matthew 13:10-17, it's stated that Jesus said: “For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.”

In 1963, Malaya had a lot. Yet, more was given to them when Sabah and Sarawak were taken away from the people, the Orang Asal in particular.

Even the little that the people of Sabah and Sarawak had was taken away from them, “because while seeing they do not see and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.”Matthew 13:10-17

Malaysia a failure in Sabah, Sarawak

By Joe Fernandez

It’s patently pointless getting into rhetoric and polemics on Malaysia in Sabah and Sarawak, at this juncture, in the wake of the Lahad Datu Standoff. Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak has vowed that Sabah will remain forever within Malaysia. Apologists for his Administration swear that Malaysia was properly constituted in Sabah as well.

Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God’s great Judgment Seat;
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) in The Ballad of East and West

Malaya on the one hand, and Sabah and Sarawak on the other hand, are poles apart.

Coping with inevitable Evil created by Government

by Joe Fernandez
The latest statistics available from a variety of sources on the National Debt Burden of Malaysia make very disturbing reading. The people should keep cash. This is no time for investments. Cash is King.

The Government continues to take solace in the fact that the vast majority of the people in the kampungs remain blissfully unaware and apparently continues to root for it under the tainted electoral system.

Orang Asal, Native and Bumiputera are not one and the same thing

By Joe Fernandez

Reader Chong Tet Loi claims in “Never let extremists have their way” (Sunday Forum 24 Feb, 2013 Daily Express) that MANY (people?) were amused by my take in “Both These Sultans Never Owned Sabah” (Sunday Forum 17 Feb, 2013).

No doubt he conducted an instant Sabah-wide survey after my letter to conclude that “MANY” were “amused” by it and probably he would have liked to add that quite a few even died from laughter.
 

The same threat of Phillippines swallowing Sabah if...

Joe Fernandez' note

KOTA KINABALU : There's a comment in Malaysia Today that if Sabah opts for freedom, the Philippines is waiting (meaning to swallow Sabah).

This is the same bogeyman story that we were told in 1963 by the Malayan Government and the British: that the Philippines and Indonesia are the big crocodiles in the region, waiting to swallow Sabah and Sarawak after the British leave.

Joe Fernandez on how to topple BN

KOTA KINABALU : PBS won only 25 seats in 1994 because the other seats were packed with illegal immigrants.

There's no need to issue a directive to issue citizenships only within the law. It's understood.
The Opposition will not accept a BN victory at the 13th GE for four reasons:

(1) the BN has been in power too long, an unprecedented 56 years;

(2) The BN has been in power all these years through fair and foul means;
(3) the BN would have cheated to win the 13th General Election; and

(4) if the BN is not toppled by a Revolution as in Egypt, it will never be toppled.

Sabah and Sarawak must decide what to do if there's a Revolution in KL and Putrajaya.

Egypt -- the evil of Government

Joe Fernandez' observation
KOTA KINABALU : In Egypt, Mubarak used to win every presidential election, collecting 90 per cent of the votes cast.

Finally, the people of Egypt were convinced that there was no way that they could bring down the Mubarak Government through elections.

They took to the streets and created the Egyptian Revolution.

The moral of the story is that no political party can legitimately win more than two or three terms consecutively. Government by its very nature is evil but probably a necessary evil as long as it doesn't get too big for its boots.

Sabah, Sarawak at historical crossroads come the 13th GE

By Joe Fernandez
The unprecedented political divide in Malaya with the emergence of Pakatan Rakyat (PR) taking half the 165 Malayan seats in Parliament and five states (now four) and Kuala Lumpur on Sat 8 Mar, 2008 opened up a historical window of opportunity for Sabah and Sarawak to free themselves from the 50-year-long vice-like grip of the Malaya-dominated Federal Government in Putrajaya.

In 2008, voters in Malaya voted against the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) -- and not so much for PR -- and hence, it's said, the Opposition Alliance won by default. PR turned in a miserable performance in 2004 at the 12th General Election.

Indian capacity to ‘create trouble’ endless

By Joe Fernandez
Carpet dealer Deepak Jaikishan has now let on that Rosmah Mansor, the wife of Bugis-origin Prime Minister Mohd Najib Abdul Razak told him once that “90 per cent of all problems in Malaysia are created by ten per cent of the Indian community”. Call it either super efficient utilization of human resources or not enough trouble being created.

The last time we heard any such thing, it was Adolf Hitler blaming the Jews in Nazi Germany, “for creating trouble”, before sending the scapegoats to the gas chambers.
 

Indians in a spot in any Islamic Revolution after 13th GE

By Joe Fernandez
Given the looming 13th General Election, the minority Indian Nation in Malaysia must keep in mind the tragic fate of the Christian minorities in the Middle East in the wake of the Arab Spring -- valid as its other reasons are -- which chose to ignore the fact that the only majority that matters is that in the legislature, not in demography. And that dialogue, not necessarily to agree, is the best way forward politically in any civilised nation wedded to democracy, human rights and freedom.

Consider the fact that Obama, a Black American, became US President. The Blacks number only ten per cent of the US population.

Mahathir's Tall Tales on Sabah!

By Joe Fernandez

We have heard it all now on Sabah from former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

In his latest take on the on-going Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) in the state, Mahathir claims that he instructed that only those eligible in Sabah should be granted citizenship.

This is rich!

He’s degenerating before our very eyes even as a poor liar.

There’s an old Malayalee saying with which Mahathir should be familiar: “Once you tell a lie, you must tell a thousand other lies to cover up the first lie.”

Malaysia that was and is, by Joe Fernandez

By Joe Fernandez

KOTA KINABALU : Sabah and Sarawak did not become independent on 16 Sept, 1963 through Malaysia, as the history books keep telling our students.

Sabah obtained independence on 31 Aug, 1963 when it opted for self-determination.

Sarawak obtained independence on 22 July, 1963 when it opted for self-determination.

No referendum was held in Sabah, Sarawak and Malaya on independence.

The Malayan Government opted for independence. The individual states in Malaya did not join Malaysia. So, Sabah and Sarawak cannot be referred to as the 12th and 13th states.

Brunei, Sulu sultans had no territory to cede to British North Borneo Chartered Company

By Joe Fernandez

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN : It's interesting that your reader Mr Chong Tet Loi should write in the DE Forum on Sunday 3 Feb, 2013 -- "Ancestors of Migrants came via front door" -- that the Brunei and Sulu Sultans ceded territory in Sabah to the British North Borneo Chartered Company and/or its predecessors.

I beg to differ.

The westerners found early on that their idea of territory and land ownership was not as practised by many other cultures especially the Islamic, the Maori and Indians (America).

Anwar should redeem himself in Sabah

By Joe Fernandez
It’s unlikely that Anwar had anything to do with the tainted electoral rolls in Sabah and with good reasons too. The modus operandi on the MyKad scam in Sabah, by all accounts, was in operation long before he became Umno Deputy President, Sabah Umno head and Deputy Prime Minister.

Indeed, it might even have begun shortly after Malaysia in 1963. The suspicion stems mainly from the number of people classified as Malays, not recognised as a Native Group, in Sabah.

Anwar before RCI will be High Noon

By Joe Fernandez

It can be safely assumed that the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) in Sabah will find it extremely difficult not to take up Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim’s publicly expressed willingness to appear before it. The RCI resumed this week after a short break.

The RCI must not give the impression to the public that they have been instructed by the Government to do everything possible not to allow anyone to embarrass former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad during its proceedings.

‘Voice for the Voiceless’ Ministry idea in time

by Joe Fernandez
If a Town Hall-style meeting of about 300 initially perplexed people in Kota Kinabalu last weekend is anything to go by, the nationwide movement for a Ministry of Orang Asal and Minority Affairs (MOAMA) has got off to a good start in Sabah.

The Sabahans quickly dropped their position that they were in a majority, following an explanation by Hindraf Makkal Sakthi chairman P. Waythamoorthy, on the need for a “Voice for the Voiceless” Ministry at the Federal level as in several other countries.

Neither BN nor Pakatan good for Sabah, S’wak

Declassified documents pertinent to Borneo, found in
the British archives, indicate that Putrajaya's
policies may be running foul of the unwritten
constitution of Malaysia.

byJoe Fernandez

Former Sabah Chief Minister Mohd Harris Salleh has never failed to appear from time to time as a bundle of contradictions to the extent of even embarrassing his own party leaders.

Harris, in his defence, may be said to mean well and even acting in good faith but often this argument is nothing more than the proverbial fig-leaf.

The man simply can’t be allowed to get away with it too many times. It creates not just bad but dangerous precedents. Both Harris and former Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad appear to be birds of a feather in more ways than one.

However Harris isn’t even facing the remotest danger of being hauled up by Umno — assuming he’s still a member of the party given his penchant for sponsoring mosquito parties including Usno 2006 which is awaiting “registration” — on disciplinary charges for bringing it into public disrepute. This Mother of All Charges, with apologies to Saddam Hussein, is sure to cook anyone’s goose for good.

Mahathir silent on Najib’s plan to have MACC vet all BN candidates

by Joe Fernandez

 

Umno President and Barisan Nasional (BN) chairman Mahathir Mohamad plans to seek the help of the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) to vet the ruling coalition’s candidates for the forthcoming 13^th General Election.

There has been nothing but an ominous silence from former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad to this reported Najib plan and with good reasons too.

Jeffrey paints bleak scenario on Sabah

The STAR chairman doesn't buy the BN propaganda that
the state is not in the grip of grinding poverty.

By Joe Fernandez

Sabah strongman Jeffrey Kitingan isn’t buying the increasingly shrill propaganda barrage emanating from the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition… that the influx of foreign labour into Sabah provides the clearest proof that there’s continuing development in the state and that it isn’t the poorest in the country as depicted by recent figures.

It’s an issue being flogged to death by both sides of the political divide in Sabah and Sarawak.

Jeffrey surprisingly waxed more eloquently than usual late this week in the local media on a nightmare scenario in the state. He hesitated in the temptation, for once, to go as usual all over the place. The opposition, he hastened to add, wasn’t being blind to the reality and accused the state government of being in a state of denial on Sabah’s “grinding poverty”.